HARDWOOD RECORD 



29 



Minneapolis. 



Investigation of r 1 1 ■ ■ so-c°alled lumber trust 



has been undertaken by a commit) I the 



Minnesota legislature. 11 baa beard si .1 



plaints, but nothing to establish a point, any 

 more than that wholesalers object i" selling to 

 small consumers ami thai the retailers' associa 

 tlon keeps track of any such sales Cor the 

 Information of its members, J. E. Rhodes, sec 

 retary of the Northern Pine Manufacturers' 

 Association, and w. G. Mollis, secretary of the 

 Northwestern Lumbermen's Association, have 



1 the principal witnesses. The committee is 



pretty well convinced now that there is no such 

 thing as fixing prices by associations or bj 

 common agreement. 



A. A. Rotzien of the Hawkins I. and & Lumber 

 Company, Minneapolis, is hack from a business 

 trip in northern Minnesota, where he was buy- 

 ing some stocks and contract in.,- for the cul of 

 some pine and hardwood mills for next year. 



The Luce & Thompson Company has recently 



1 n incorporated by George W. Luce and X. G. 



Thompson, formerly with the Fulton & Libbey 

 Company, this city. They will do a general 

 commission business but will mainly act as 

 agents for the factory of Harris & Cole Bros. 

 >. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, manufacturers of turned 

 work. 



A. P. Hein of the John Hein Lumber Com- 

 pany. Tony, Wis., was down last week Looking 

 after the hardwood and cooperage market. They 



have been shipping hardw I pretty heavily of 



late and could ship more if they could get cars. 



C. F. Osborne of Osborne & Clark, the local 

 wholesalers, says the country yard trade is 

 picking up and there is a lively call for floor- 

 ing, wagon stock and other Items of hardwood 

 usually carried by the yards. They are hand- 

 ling more southern stock this year than ever 

 before, because of the short an,] decreasing sup- 

 ply of northern oak. 



O. K. Hobe of the llobe Lumber Company 

 has returned from a buying trip in Wisconsin, 

 where be was picking up some hardwood and 

 hemlock stocks to fill coming orders. 



E. Payson Smith of the Payson Smith Lum- 

 ber Company says their shipments of oak from 

 southern mills are coining along now as fast 

 as they are able to load cars. There is more 

 high water trouble for mills along the Missis- 

 sippi owing to the rise of the Ohio, which lias 

 swelled the river and is backing up into the 

 bayous ami tributaries on the lower river. The 

 railroads are in the market now for all the 

 oak ties and bridge timbers they can ship. For 

 tile most part they have been slow about order- 

 ing and are now in a great rush for shipments 

 of stuff they have just bought. 



Wausau. 



At the R. Connor Company's camp 9, near 

 Laona, three loads of hardwood were recently 

 hauled by one team scaling respectively 13,340, 

 15,730 and 16,340 feet. 



The Eau Claire Box & Lumber Company's 

 plant in Eau Claire was recently destroyed by 

 fire, entailing a loss of $30, 000, partially cov- 

 ered by insurance. About 6,000,000 feet of 

 mixed lumber was saved. The owners, W. B, 

 Scholfield and C. E. Turner of Wausau, say they 

 will not rebuild. 



The O. U. Ingram Lumber C pany of Eau 



Claire has been organized with $500, 



capital. The incorporators are O. II. Ingram, 

 C. T. Bundy, K. P. Wilcox and Hannah 1. 

 Johnson. 



The Transfer Lumber Company of McMillan, a 

 hardwood jobbing concern, has filed articli 

 dissolution with the secretarj of state. B 1 

 .McMillan was president and A. E. Beebee, ecn 

 tiiry and treasurer. 



The plant of the Colby Stave & Heading 

 Company has been moved from Colby to Park 

 Falls, so as 10 be neater raw material. 



W. H. Hatten of -New London, at the head 

 of a well known hardwood tern, has an- 

 nounced his candidacy for United States senator 



to slice 1 Senator John r. Spooiier. who re- 

 cently resigned. .Mr. Hatten's friends are en 



lident ,,f ins election. 



Tile Wausau Mississippi Timber Company is 



one of the lately organized hardw 1 concerns. 



The main stockholders are Chas. W'einleld. II. 

 II. Malison and II. E. Smith of Wausau and 

 their capital stock is $30,000. The company 

 owns I. linn acres of oak timber lands in Missis 

 sippr and holds options on several thousand 

 acres more which they contemplate buying. 



11 is estimated that fully eighty-five per cent 

 of all the hardwood lumber in Wisconsin is 

 ow bed by jobbers. 



The Crocker chair Company's mill in Anllgo 

 I .1- begun sawing out chair Stock and the daily 

 output for the next six months will lie 40,000 



feel. 



The Cooper-Hughes Lumber Company of 

 Nashotah is one of the latest concerns to enter 



the hardwood held. The company lias a capital 

 slock of $25,000 and the stockholders are Win. 

 E. Cooper, Thos. .1. Hughes and Lee E. Utter. 



'the Wilson-Weber Lumber Company of 

 Menomonie has increased its capital stock from 

 $50,000 to $150,000. 



The Hardwood Land & Improvement Company 

 has been organized in Grand Rapids with a 

 .apital stock of $50,000. E. P. Arpin. 1 he presi- 

 dent, states that the purposes of the company 

 arc to cut the timber on hardwood lands in 

 northern Wisconsin and then induce colonization. 



The l'arkinson-Marlin Lumber Company of 

 Madison recently purchased ttie lumber yards of 

 Hie Grand Rapids Lumber Company and one of 

 the West side Lumber Company, all located in 

 Grand Rapids. 



A. II. Stange, head of the Stange Lumber 

 Company of Merrill, has donated $25,000 and a 

 church site to the Trinity Lutheran congregation 

 of that city. 



Negotiations have been closed for the sale of 

 the Escanaba Woodenware Company's plants at 

 Escanaba and Crystal Falls to the Escanaba 

 Manufacturing Company, a corporation organ 

 izeii by St. Louis, Mo., capitalists. The deal 

 involves approximately $1,000,000. The Escanaba 

 plant is one of the largest of its kind in the 

 world and manufactures wooden butter dishes in 

 Immense quantities. 



Fred Smith, E. Could and .1. Means of Merrill 

 recently disposed of several thousand aires of 

 hardwood lands in Texas to northern capitalists. 



Tin- tolal cut of mixed hardwoods in the 

 Marinette mills for the past year amounted I" 

 20,913,000 feet, which was an increase over tin' 

 . 111 of former years. 



'Tile pine mills of Wausau and the lower Wis- 

 consin river valley are gradually being turned 

 into hardwood mills, and this coming summer 

 will witness more hardwood cut in that region 

 than ever before. The Alexander Stewart Lum- 

 ber Company's mill in Wausau was built in 

 I si:: and has cut pine from that time until 

 now, hut this summer the cut will be largelj 

 hardwood. 



The I'pham Manufacturing Company of Marsh- 

 field is plauniug to enlarge its furniture factory 

 in 1 lie spring by the addition of another story 

 and warehouse. 



Ashland. 



Tilings are : ,i ;, standstill in this section. 



owing to the big 11 Is in Hie Ohio and its 



tributaries. Ashland Is high and dry, but ail of 

 the nulls between here and Catlettsburg were 

 obliged to close down. The damage io ma- 



chinery will I,, heavy. No lumber was lost, but 

 there was a hard light to save it. as also the 



timber, which was .specially hard to manage 



on account <>l heavy drift. Itesides til" high 

 water, shippers are seriously handicapped by a 

 car shortage, on accounl of which many orders 

 have been delayed. 



There is a brisk demand for poplar, one inch 

 ones and twos bringing *:,::, selects. $40; No. 1 

 common. s:;r, . No. 2 common, $24, f. 0. b. Ohio 

 river. 



T. .N. Fannin of the Keyes Fannin Lumber 

 Company is at his home in this city, having 

 come down from the mills at llerndon. W. Va.. 

 lor a few days, lie reports business excellent 



with his c pany, with bright prospects for a 



banner year. 



The Clearfield Lumber Company will extend 

 its line of railroad Into the mountains from 

 Paragon, Ky. 



Fin- saw and planing mill of the Ironton 

 Lumber Company, Ironton, 0., was destroyed bj 

 tire March 22. Loss on properly and lumber. 

 s Hi, iioii, insurance. $30,000. Ibis is the third 

 lime the plant has burned. 



Cooper Brothers oi Fleming county. Ken 

 lucky, have sold a very large tract of timber 

 land to Richardson Brothers of Olympia, Bath 

 county, who have erected sawmills thereon. 

 They will saw 1 he limber into switch ties and 

 lumber. 



At Shelby, Ky., on March 20, an explosion 

 occurred at the plant of Crescent Lumber Com- 

 pany in which Edward Thacker received in- 

 tones which will probably prove fatal. Two 

 other employes were painfully injured. The 

 cause of the explosion is unknown, lint it is 

 believed that the water in the boiler was allowed 

 10 get too low. The loss will reach $1,500. 



Jacob l.eiciii, head of the Leieht Lumber 

 company, has returned from a visit of several 

 days to Louisville. 



The offices of the w. II. Dawkius Lumber 

 Company have been handsomely papered and 

 are now second to none in point of beauty. 



A man claiming to he Chas. W. Watkins "t 

 Memphis, Tenn., perpetrated a clever forgerj 

 upon the W. II. Hawkins Lumber Company, (in 

 the morning of March 13 he called at the office 

 of tlie company and asked for work, either as 

 inspector or on the rolls, claiming to lie a first 

 class lumberman. He was told to call again 

 in the afternoon for an answer, and did so, mil) 

 to be told there was no place for him. On the 

 morning of the 15th a check for $L'5 turned 

 up at the Citizens Lank .v Trust Company made 

 payable to Chas. W. Watkins and signed with 

 the stamp of the Hawkins Company, per "A. D. 

 B." (their bookkeeper's initials being "E. n. 

 B."). It was found to be a forgery and had 

 been presented at the bank by a prominent 

 merchant who claimed be had cashed the cheek 

 on the evening of the 14th for a man who 

 claimed to be a traveling salesman for the 

 Hawkins Company. The check was marked "for 

 expenses" and for additional proof the man pro 



duced a letter supposed to have been written to 



him by the company, signed also with the rubber 

 stamp. The whole story was so cleverly gotten 

 up that the check was cashed unhesitatingly. 

 'Jin: man made good bis escape, and is supposed 

 to have gone up the Norfolk & Western railroad. 

 He is described as about 30 or 35 years of age. 

 5 le.i s inches tall, dark curly hair and smooth 

 face. Mr Hawkins has no idea as to bow or 



when be obtained possession of the company's 

 stamp, as it had apparently not been removed 

 from its case. 



HardWood Market. 



(By HAEDWOOD RECORD Exclusive Market Reporters.) 



Chicago. 



The local demand for all kinds ami grades of 

 hardwoods is eery active. Deliveries still eon 

 linne slow owing to the car shortage. By reason 

 of very strenuous effort the larger porti 



1 1 go jobber .hi'. led in I eeplng stocks 



in very good shape, but with the increased de- 

 mand it goes without saying that they will be 

 badly broken Inside of the next thirty days. 

 Oak ami poplar a in 1 pecially strong request, 



